After only six months working in Las Vegas Annette is being transferred to San Diego. When she told me her news, she also told me she wanted to take us up on our offer to live with us. She and I have been talking about this possibility for almost a year. I can hardly believe it’s really going to happen...and so soon! She and Chris will be here in a matter of weeks.
Nett and Steve moved to Tennessee in 2001 because the San Diego housing market looked like it would never allow them to own a home here. Even in Tennessee they never realized their dream together. Within six months Steve came back for health and personal reasons. But Annette was soon able to buy a house practically next door to her mom and step dad.
Not long after Steve died, while she was still in Tennessee, Annette told me that her entire life (and Christopher’s) revolved around her job. They would get up early every weekday morning, quickly dress, and then head out the door for the nearly two hour commute to work, usually grabbing breakfast from a drive-thru on the way. Chris spent his day at nursery school near her job and often stayed until they closed at 6:00. On their long drive home they would again grab a meal at the drive-thru. Weekends were spent recovering from the work-week, doing household chores, and running errands. They had the house but not a home. Nett felt that Chris was missing out on childhood.
In January she leaped at the chance to move to Las Vegas. The time with her Dad and step mom has been wonderful for them all. Chris and Annette have more time together and Marcy has seen to it that Chris is involved in after-school activities. But the position in San Diego comes with greater opportunity for advancement. It is right for her on so many levels! What a happy co-incidence it is near us!
Steve’s childhood room has been serving as my craft room but I can hardly contain my joy as I move everything back into the cramped den closet readying the room for them. I am thrilled by thoughts of Nett and Chris here with us ~ Chris growing up in the home and community that nurtured his dad, attending the same school his dad, Aunts Amy and Marisa, Uncle Nick, and cousins Kirstie and Kyle have gone to. I’ll be taking care of him while Annette is at work, giving us a chance to really get to know each other. He’ll be able to spend time with his brother and his cousins. Nett will even be able to have a social life again, maybe even date.
As I worked I was high thinking of the whole family together again. Then a cloud of darkness rushed at me...not the whole family.
Steve’s not coming back with them.
Not the whole family the way it used to be.
Whole is different now.
I shook it off. Whole may be different now, but it is whole. I smiled, said a prayer of thanksgiving for restoration of our family, and continued cleaning the little room for Nett and Chris to share.
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